LONDON, August 11 – The Royal Bank of Scotland is selling loans worth up to 8 billion dollars to private equity firms after it suffered huge write-downs linked to the global credit crunch, a report said on Monday.
RBS is selling to Apollo, GSO Capital, Blackstone\’s debt investing arm, and TPG, said people familiar with the deal according to the Financial Times.
RBS was unavailable for comment on Monday.
On Friday, the bank had revealed an 11.4-billion-dollar hit from the US subprime crisis and credit squeeze, and a resulting half-year loss among the biggest in British banking history.
RBS, the second-biggest British bank, admitted being humbled by exposure to the subprime crisis and reported a first-half net loss of 802 million pounds.
That contrasted with a profit after tax of 3.56 billion pounds during the equivalent period in 2007.
Only a year ago RBS was riding high, leading a consortium takeover worth 100 billion dollars for Dutch bank ABN Amro.
